Mitch Who Now?

You may remember my former boyfriend, Mitch Canham. Unfortunately, the distance between us (Well, actually, the distance between the minor leagues and televised games) has taken its toll, and it's time for me to move on so that I can once again enjoy baseball.
This season's prospects are few. Ken Griffey, Jr. was the front-runner for a while, since he is back in Seattle where he belongs, and his smile lights up an entire stadium... but he's kinda...well, let's just say he's a seasoned veteran and leave it at that.
So I've been keeping my eyes open for a young, handsome, talented player with whom I can carry on a torrid, albeit completely fake affair.
Let me tell you about Jacoby Ellsbury. I've had my eye on him for a few years, since he was at Oregon State. He was OSUs best (and hottest) player until Mitch came around... and Jacoby was drafted. Jacoby is from Madras, Oregon, and he is the first Navajo in the major leagues.
Perhaps you saw him in the 2007 World Series? He's the one who should have been the MVP. He was clutch. The Red Sox couldn't have won the series without him. Just ask Coco Crisp.
In that series, Taco Bell made a promise that they would give every man, woman, and child in America a free taco if a base was stolen during the world series. Guess who earned himself the nickname Tacoby Bellsbury?
Or maybe you caught his crazy defense in 2008. Jacoby has skills and speed to go with his good looks.
So you may be wondering why I haven't fallen in love with Jacoby before. I'm wondering the same thing myself. I guess he is like the kid down the street that you grew up with, but never noticed until you came home from college and he had better skin and hair. I guess I took Jacoby for granted.
Until.
On Sunday, my new boyfriend was on third base with the bases loaded and with a left handed hitter, he stole home. For seemingly no other reason than because he could. The other baserunners stayed right where they were. There was no bunt, no squeeze... just Jacoby, stealing home... and my heart.

Things I have learned this week

That's my dog, Gus. He's a Great Pyrenees. (Sometimes, he's just a pretty good Pyrenees) I have two other dogs. One more dog, and I'll be the crazy dog lady. I didn't learn anything about Gus this week, but he was a good boy so I put his picture on the interbay. Here's what I learned:

*Napoleon Bonaparte wasn't super short. He was 5'6", average height for a man in his day. The British made up stories about him being 5'2" to try to literally belittle him.

*The Prime Minister of Canada is Stephen Harper.

*The Padres just got a whole lot cuter.

*Mitch Canham is dating a girl named Marlis, and she is stunning. Possibly better looking than he is. She looks really smart and funny, too.

* If you are planning a wedding in the Seattle area , check out Gerald Pope photography. Lovely work.

*If your hangers keep complaining about being cold, you can buy them charming handmade ponchos here.

* (4/09-sadly, your hangers will have to tough it out, the ponchos are no longer available.) Carnegie Deli brand pastrami from Costco is not nearly as delicious as it looks. It's just okay.

Bittersweep

Mitch Canham has likely played his last game for OSU. He made it a doozy- he went 2 for 4 and had a couple great plays at the plate...oh, and the Beavs are NCAA Champs for the second year in a row. They went undefeated in the tournament.
I am really happy for the Beavs, but sad about Canham. He has been drafted by the Padres, and even though he could come back and play his Senior year in Corvallis, he probably won't. There is a chance he could play A ball in Eugene for the Ems on his way to the bigs- but the Ems aren't on TV. Now I am left to wait for Mitch to get to the show... and I can only hope he plays in the AL. Until then, our romance will probably cool off a little- and by "romance" I mean "me blogging about him", which is too bad, because an incredible thing happened last week. People came to my blog! Somehow, they searched for Mitch Canham, and they got here.
I'm almost certain they were sorely disappointed by what they found. Especially if they googled "beaver pictures".

I ask Jobu to come

One of the fun things about baseball is voodoo. Some may call it superstition, or ritual, or whatever... but it works like this:

If something works for you, don't change it. If you don't know what it is that is working for you, don't change anything.

Did you see what my boyfriend did on Wednesday? He tore. it. up. as the Beavs dominated the UC Irvine Anteaters on their way to the CWS final series.

Here's where the voodoo comes in. Although the Beavs crushed Arizona State on Monday to get to UCI, Mitch was...quiet at the plate. Then I told the world about our relationship on Wednesday... and he had an incredible game- he went 4 for 5 with one HR and all kinds of RBI.

I don't want to detract from Mitch's talent. I am not so vain as to think that he stepped his game up just because I blogged about him. However, voodoo being what it is, I made damn sure to get a Mitch post in today.

My New Boyfriend

My husband says that he knew I was "the one" when I recognized an uncaptioned picture of Jerry Tarkanian. To this day, I don't know why I know who Jerry Tarkanian is- I have absolutely no interest in college basketball, or UNLV- but the fact remains that I fooled my husband into thinking I cared about sports.

Back when we were newlyweds, and I was still trying to impress him, I dedicated myself to learning to appreciate baseball. It wasn't easy- those were the days before Fox regional coverage. We lived out-of-market, so we couldn't watch Mariners games on tv. So we listened to them on the radio.

Listening to baseball on the radio takes focus- but you can learn a lot. For a couple seasons, I paid close attention to the action and listened to my husband explain pitching matchups during the commercials. It was not for nothing- baseball is 50 times more interesting when you understand the small nuances. Bonus- I can say I know the infield fly rule.

DirectTV and FoxSports Northwest changed everything. Now we could watch almost every Mariners game. We watched the miracle 1995 season. We went to a playoff game at the Kingdome and watched Edgar Martinez bring Ken Griffey Jr home with that double. I think I saw a tear in the corner of my husband's eye. We suffered through 1996, and our suffering paid off in '97.

Then in 1998, the M's acquired middle reliever Jose Paniagua. He was my baseball boyfriend for three years. Jose's eyes are the color of blue masking tape. I first noticed him as he was looking in to get the signs from Dan Wilson. I wanted to be Dan Wilson. The problem with Jose was that he had The One Good Angle. He looked really good from the home plate camera as he was looking in. He looked kinda goofy from every other angle. I had to break up with him when he got traded. We parted amicably.

With Jose gone, the Mariners were left with a whole lotta ugly.I had to look elsewhere in the league for my new boyfriend.

I didn't pay much attention to Johnny Damon when he was with the A's. When he went to Boston, he let his hair grow and stopped shaving and confused me. I was confused because I had always maintained that any guy can double his attractiveness by getting a good haircut and a clean shave, and wearing sunglasses and a good baseball cap. Johnny turned my theory on it's ear. There was something oddly compelling about his mix of Jesus and Grizzly Adams and Jerry Garcia. I made him my second baseball boyfriend, which in turn led to the Red Sox breaking the Curse of the Bambino and winning the World Series.

Then he did the unforgivable... he signed with the Yankees. Now, with his smooth face and short hair, all I can hear is that lisp. Johnny broke my heart a little. Baseball was dead to me.

Like Annie Savoy in Bull Durham (I wonder if she is related to Bobby Savoy from the Natural?) I found I couldn't stay away. My husband has always been an Oregon Sate fan, but the baseball team is rarely on TV. Two years ago, they made it to the NCAA tournament. Last year, they won the College World Series. There is a good chance they will do it again this year. The good thing about post season play is that it gets televised.

My current baseball boyfriend is OSU's Mitch Canham. It's a little scandalous, because he is a good 12 years younger than I am, but we will make it work. Unlike Jose, he looks good from just about any angle. He doesn't strike me as a deserter like Johnny. Probably the best thing about Mitch is that he is a catcher. Catcher's gear is hot. I think because it looks like armor. Mitch Canham is the knight in dirty armor who saved baseball for me.